Usually, the Trope Namer for a trope provides the one codifying example to define them all. Sometimes, however, a trope is named after something that isn't itself a good example of the trope — or isn't an instance of the trope at all. Sometimes the quote sounds nice but it in the wrong context. Oftentimes the trope is a variation on another trope and receives a name based on it.

Be particularly careful when linking to such trope pages, because they might not be what they sound like at first glance. (Obviously, any YMMV entry with a specific Trope Namer could be an example in the eyes of some viewers but not others; and some have actually been renamed because of it.)

And Some Other Stuff — The Trope Namer is Burn Notice, which typically does include the full recipes for all the dangerous stuff they use. The line itself cut out the ingredient simply because it would not have produced as big an explosion as was shown.

Batman Grabs a Gun — The weapon that Batman used to wound Darkseid in Final Crisis was an experimental alien weapon loaded with a single Radion bullet, designed specifically for killing New Gods—not the more mundane breed of firearm that Batman ordinarily refuses to use.

Big Lipped Alligator Moment — The Trope Namer is a musical number in All Dogs Go to Heaven — an animated musical about Funny Animals set in New Orleans, where a singing alligator isn't out-of-place at all. And King Gator, the big-lipped alligator in question, reappears towards the end to take out the film's villain, thus having a profound impact on the plot. The musical number itself that is the trope namer, however, is a different story.

Bits of Me Keep Passing Out — Arthur Dent may have felt like crap, but he doesn't seem to have had any random body parts going to sleep. He did, however, have them disappearing at one point. Make of that what you will.

Black Metal — While the song by Venom contains many elements of Black Metal, the music and vocals are much closer to the style of Thrash Metal they would invariably influence.

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers — The trope-naming sketch in Monty Python's Life of Brian has nothing to do with any character's feelings about cheese. The joke just involves a character mishearing "peacemakers" as "cheesemakers" while listening to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount.

Blinded by the Light — Trope is specifically about blinding an opponent with bright lights for a combative advantage, which is irrelevant to anything in the original song by Bruce Springsteen (and, later, Manfred Mann's Earth Band).

Boom Stick — A staff that shoots stuff, named after This Is My Boomstick (which was originally referring to a shotgun), though one could say "boom stick" is a literal name for it.

Brawn Hilda — Brünnhilde has traditionally been described as very attractive, but due to the ending song requiring very strong lungs, she's usually played by rather large women, leading to inverse Hollywood Pudgy.

Chained Heat — The movie the trope takes its name from has nothing to do with diametrically opposed characters shackled together. The film is actually just a Les Yay-filled Exploitation Film about a women's prison.

Cue the Sun — The scene in The Truman Show where this line is said is not an example of the trope, but the movie itself does play this trope straight after the storm lightens up while Truman is out at sea.

Dem Bones — Only the connecting bones are mentioned in the folk song Trope Namer, but in source, Ezekiel 37, the bones are covered in flesh. They're also not Mooks, they're the resurrected and restored nation of Israel.

Eye of Newt: All the ingredients in the witches' brew at the beginning of MacBeth are folk names for herbs. "Eye of newt" itself refers to mustard seed.

Fisher Kingdom — Named after Fisher King, but this trope's kingdom changes all its residents, not just its ruler. The original fisher-kingdom (in the tales of King Arthur) is an example of that trope, not this one.

Flash Sideways — LOST named and, along with Sliding Doors, co-codified the trope with its extensive use of parallel timelines in the final season. But the "alternate timeline" turned out to be the afterlife instead.

Florence Nightingale Effect — Florence Nightingale is a famous nurse, but there are no examples of romance between her and anyone under her care.

Future Imperfect — The trope-naming episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation has nothing to do with people from the future having incorrect ideas about the past; it's about Riker winding up in an illusory vision of his own future life (his future is "imperfect" in the sense that it's not real, and it's not convincing enough to fool him).

Goggles Do Nothing — Ranier Wolfcastle was wearing safety goggles that just weren't enough to protect his eyes from a flood of acid. The goggles were not being kept on his forehead as a fundamentally useless or unnecessary clothing accessory.

It's the Only Way to Be Sure — While Ripley suggests nuking the site from orbit for this very reason during the scene that made Aliens the Trope Namer, it doesn't actually happen (or at least, not the way she probably intended).

Jekyll & Hyde — This trope is about a case in which a good personality and an evil personality literally share the same body. While most adaptations make Dr. Henry Jekyll into a Hero Protagonist, the dynamic that he shares with Mr. Edward Hyde in the original book is actually a case of A Whole Neutral Person And His Darker Self. Also, the protagonist of the book was actually a friend of Jekyll's named Mr. Utterson, not Jekyll himself. Blame Common Knowledge, not TV Tropes.

Jerkass — The word "jerkass" was first used in the episode "The Joy of Sect" by Homer when he was driving towards the cultists saying "Outta my way, jerkass!" Homer himself started out as a mostly lovable, well-meaning husband/father, and it was not until fans of the The Simpsons nicknamed his Flanderized self, "Jerkass Homer", did this adjective come to mean a jerkish character.

Know-Nothing Know-It-All — The name of this trope comes from an insult that Homer used to describe Lisa after she wrecked his barbecue in the episode, "Lisa the Vegetarian". While Lisa can definitely be a bit insistent with an "ideas above people" mentality, she is usually characterized as an authentic Insufferable Genius. Rarely, if ever, does she actually wrongly believe herself to be intelligent.

Lucky Charms Title — The cereal is written with ordinary letters. It's just that the marshmallow shapes called out in the ads could be used for this kind of title.

Ludicrous Speed — Speed that is so fast it drives you ludicrous, while the trope namer heavily implies that you'd already have to be ludicrous just to want to go that fast.

No Celebrities Were Harmed — The end credits of The Critic used the phrase after announcing out that celebrity voices were impersonated, not to note that characters based on Real Life celebrities have different names on the show.

Obvious Judas — In The Four Gospels, it's not obvious until it happens that Judas Iscariot is the traitor note except of course that Everybody Knows That thanks to 2000 years of It Was His Sled. When Jesus reveals that he knows one of the disciples will betray Him, they are all shocked and ask, "Lord, is it I?" There are a few tiny hints in the narrative itself (Matthew mentions that Judas was Stealing from the Till), but it essentially comes out of the blue.

Open the Iris — Namer was a shield for the Stargate, not anything about someone's eye.

Orwellian Retcon — Trope is about editing republished/recut versions of a work to put them in-line with a Retcon made after the original version. Characters in 1984 did this in-universe, but George Orwell never did this himself.

Pac Man Fever — The song is about liking the game, not about getting video game facts wrong.

Paint It Black — The trope is about a character's costume changing when they turn evil. The song by The Rolling Stones is about a man overcome by grief after his lover's death who wants to paint everything black.

The Pennyfarthing Effect — The Trope-naming bicycle was legitimately seen as the better of two inefficiencies until 1890.

Scandalgate — "Watergate" was just the name of the hotel where the famous US political scandal mainly took place. While it inspired the use of the "-gate" suffix in almost all future political and media scandals, the Watergate scandal itself did not follow this convention and, thus, is not an example of the trope.

Starfish Language: Named so as to be a Snowclone of "Starfish Aliens". However, as noted on the trope page, Real Life starfish don't actually engage in any particularly strange forms of communication; in fact, they don't seem to engage in any observable forms of communication at all.

“Stop Having Fun” Guys — The trope namer is an xkcd strip where someone tells a bunch of Rock Band players to "stop having fun" because they are playing an instrument simulation game rather than real instruments. However, the trope itself refers to people who do play video games, but insult those who don't play as competitively as they do.

Strong Flesh, Weak Steel — Trope is named after a metaphor used by villain Thulsa Doom from Conan The Barbarian in refence to his subjects' devotion, but he doesn't believe in literal flesh being stronger than steel.

Timey-Wimey Ball — The actual episode of Doctor Who from which this phrase emerged ends in a perfectly reasonable Stable Time Loop. But the series as a whole is all over the place in explaining the perils and practice of time travel.

Uncle Tomfoolery — There are two kinds, of which Harriet Beecher Stowe's hero is neither (presumably the name comes from how the character is often lumped into said categories through Common Knowledge).

Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born — "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." The fulfillment of this was not part of a set of twins, much less fraternal twins.

The Walls Are Closing In — The trope name was inspired by lyrics lifted from the pre-chorus to the Linkin Park song "Crawling;" however, the phrase's use in the song is intended to be metaphorical and describe the narrator's nervous breakdown—not to convey that he's caught in a Death Trap where the walls literally close in and threaten to crush a character.

We Hardly Knew Ye — The trope refers to a character who is killed off or otherwise removed from the continuity of a series before the audience can get to know them properly. The trope namer is the old Irish folk song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, which is about a soldier who returns home alive, but so maimed and disfigured that he is virtually unrecognisable.

Whale Egg — The trope namer is an incident from The Simpsons where Ralph Wiggum mistakes a large white isolation tank for said "whale egg"; it didn't involve an actual whale egg or any other egg from an animal that doesn't reproduce that way.

With This Herring — Trope namer is a movie's Impossible Task. Trope is a video game habit of giving starting characters no equipment but a quest to save the world.

Xenafication — Xena never had Xenafication, because she is already Xena. Trope is about other characters becoming more like Xena.

You Can't Go Home Again — The trope is about somebody being actually unable to return home, due to physical, legal or other reasons. Trope namer is a proverb that describes a similar, but distinct trope Stranger in a Familiar Land - you can technically go home, it just doesn't feel like home anymore.

Zerg Rush — While the Zerg in StarCraft are often used to win through force of number, the term "Zerg Rush" refers to the tactic of quickly making a small number of units at the beginning of the game to seize enemy resources before they set up defenses.

Impersonating the Evil Twin — Originally "I Am He As You Are He", after the opening lyrics of "I Am The Walrus" by The Beatles, in which the context of Lennon's words don't appear to be about this trope.

Informed Equipment — Originally "Fight In The Nude", a game challenge in Diablo to fight without armor, not a failure to render acquired equipment owing to cheap graphics which is the trope.

Lesser Star — Used to define a group member (usually in bands and music outfits) who is superfluous. It was originally named "Garfunkel", but the duo of Simon & Garfunkel was well-known for their harmonies, and Art Garfunkel sang some of their most beautiful melodies, even if Paul Simon had a more successful solo career.

Ordered to Cheat — Originally "Sweep The Leg". In The Karate Kid, not only was "sweeping the leg" not cheating (and thus a viable strategy), there was a better example in the match before, where the same guy ordered another student to take Daniel out of commission, which he does by wrecking his knee...despite not wanting to cheat in the first place.

Playing a Tree — Originally "You Are A Tree Charlie Brown", who had never been cast as a tree.

Person as Verb — Originally "I Pulled a "Weird Al"". "Weird Al" Yankovic never used the trope in his music, nor did any character in any other work use his name as a verb.

Resignations Not Accepted — Originally "You Can Never Leave", a reference to lyrics from The Eagles song "Hotel California," which in the context of the song were about not being able to leave a place, rather than an organization.

Status Quo Game Show — Originally "You Can't Win", after an in-universe game show from Stay Tuned. The protagonists of the movie actually won on the game show, or at least survived it.

Suddenly Always Knew That — Originally "I Know Kung Fu", refers to a character suddenly using an advanced skill that he/she has apparently always knew but never mentioned it before. The original trope namer, Neo from The Matrix, had to get an Upgrade Artifact installed.

Partial Credit (including cases where the trope happens but not the way the name implies):

And I Must Scream — The narrator's fate at the end of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (when he utters the trope-naming line) fits every aspect of this trope but the immobility. He ends up immortal, blind, voiceless, trapped in a giant computer, and unable to commit suicide, but capable of limited movement.

Bigger Than Jesus — John Lennondidn't say this. He actually said they were "more popular than Jesus", and he insisted that it was a lamentation rather than a boast (he found it ridiculous that the public got more enthusiastic about singing groups than about religion).

Big Ol' Eyebrows — Named after one of Strong Bad's hypothetical designs for potential new looks Strong Mad could sport. Nobody in the work actually has large eyebrows.

Every Car Is a Pinto — The real life Ford Pinto did explode when collided, but it was only one model of Pinto that was affected, and later models fixed the issue.

I Am Not Shazam — Captain Marvel, the protagonist of the DC Comics series Shazam, was originally a rather infamous example of this trope note because of a copyright dispute with Marvel Comics, the writers weren't allowed to call the series "Captain Marvel". As of DC's New 52Continuity Reboot in 2011, though, he actually is named "Shazam".

My Future Self and Me — Originally in South Park where Stan meets with his future self. This is not actually the case; it turns out that he was an actor hired by Stan's parents to keep him off of drugs. However, at the end of the episode, Cartman actually does meet his future self.

Some Call Me Tim — Trope is about someone with a very hard to pronounced name going by a shorter nickname. In-universe, we're not told why the enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail goes by the name Tim, or if it's even a nickname in the first place. Out-of-universe, John Cleese ad-libbed the line when he couldn't remember the name he was supposed to use, but we don't know if difficulty in pronouncement is why he did so.

Sprint Shoes — The Bunny Hood in Zelda was supposed to be this - but rolling is faster - but rolling too much made you dizzy in one game. In honor of being technically correct, just overshadowed, it remains an alt title.

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